DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (KNWA/KFTA) — There has been just one Arkansan to compete in the top circuit of NASCAR: Mark Martin .
The Batesville native and NASCAR Hall of Famer competed in 29 Daytona 500 races. He had 40 Cup Series wins and was inches away from making it 41.
In the 2007 Daytona 500, Martin was two-hundredths of a second away from his first Daytona 500 win.
On the final lap of the race, Martin led with Kevin Harvick near him. A multi-car crash took place behind them.
After the race, Martin said to FOX he thought a caution flag was going to come out but it didn’t and Harvick won the race on a photo finish.
At the time it was the closest finish since electronic scoring started, according to ESPN .
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“This had to be the wildest Daytona 500 I’ve ever watched. I kept my eyes shut for a while there,” said former driver Richard Childress to ESPN .
Mike Joy who called the race for FOX considered to be one of his top five in a recent article by Autoweek .